Art of building railroads.



G. D. BALDWIN.

ART OF QUILDING RAILROADS.

APPLICATION mw nEc.12. m7. RENEWED SEPT. I3, ms.

mawziu Patented Nov. 5, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

INVENTOR. 9 612mm ATTORNEY e. u. BALDWIN. ART OF BUILDING RAILROADS. I

APPLICATION FILED DEC- 12.

1917- RENEWED SEPT. 13. I9l8.

Patented Nov. 5,1918;

40 stretc'h o-f-track, sayhalf a mile or'more',

STATES GEORGE E. 'BALDWIQI, OF'HOBOKEN, New JnnsEY.

ART 015 BUILnINGnAILaonDs.

Application filed- December 12, 1917, SeriaINo. 206,739. RenewedSeptember 1:3, 1918. Serial no. 253,9s.

To all whom it'may concern. Be it known that I, "GEORG D. BALDWIN, a:citizen of the United States, and a resident of Hoboken, Hudson county,New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Art ofBuilding Railroads, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription. 7 I V 1 My invention relates to improvements in the art ofbuildingrailroads, and the, principal objectjof'my invention is to builda railroad much cheaper and faster, than has been possible with previoussystems. invention is also intended to provide means for laying at oneoperation a longstretch of permanent track so that when laid theordinary traffic of-the road can be at once operated on the track.completed roadbed is provided, permanent rails are laid to the gage ofthe ordinary track, and the construction train is run out on theserails, the roadbed built up and finished. as'fast as possible. Thissometimes involves the practical destruction of the rails, as they arewarped and twisted-,by

* the heavy construction train; Furthermore,

the construction train usually has at its forward end a car providedwithder'ricksand conveying apparatus intended to reach out insadvance ofthe car to perhaps the length o'fithe caroralittle more, hasja gang ofmen employed to workonthis Short section of traclgafter which the trainis advanced and thefoperation repeated. This is the most general'way ofoperation, and the result is i that the gang of men employed'are in oneanothers way, and enough men cannot be used to make very rapid progress.-My invention is intended to obviate these difliculties and providemeans; whereby a long can bequickly fcheaply and permanently l aid;"andthe men employed used to the best possible '-advantage,j which willappear clearly from-the description tdfolliow.

Reference is tobe had to'the accompany ing drawings forming a partflofjthis specification, in which similar reference charac} ters; mama-becorresponding parts in alljthe views; '1 5" v *Fig urel' is a brokenperspective view} illustrating a form of apparatusadapted'for use incarrying out my'm'ethod and showing onestage of the operation. A j

- Fig.12is' a similar view showing a further Usually a partlySpecification of Letters Paten't. -Patehfi ed NOV, 5',i91 8 Fig. dis adiagrammatic view showing how the cons/truction train. can be .laidout.

first laid out substantially as usual the line and grade of the track.A, light narrowga ge tracktis then laid outin sections 11, theseseetions comprising pairsof rails coupled together by ties. l2andprovided at their endportions with supports 13,,which are laid onties 14., These-are spaced apart at convenient distances, say preferablyabout 15 feet, and theties 1a are. laid to permanent grade and line inaccordance With the indications of the engineerststakes A tie 14 can belaid and graded, a' section 015 the track 11 laid thereon, thenanothertie laid, and another section of track- 1l laidand coupled to the firstsection, and this arrangement can be carried out to the dis-: tanceintended to-be covered by the tracks and rails on; the, constructiontrain as presently described. It will be readilyseen In this operationthew-engineers stakes 10, are

that this arrangement may be extended for g an indefinitedistance,limited only as above new track is to be laid, and these flatcars 15 are provided withparallelfltracks. 16 of thesame gage as.thetrack flL-and trucks I7 which are loadediwith ties. 18 have previously been arranged on theconstruction train as shown in Fig. 3,andthe cars 17Tcan be propelled in 'any, convenient way. 7 To provide jforrapid work, however, means should be provided for handling them.quickly, and a lconv'enient means is to provide'a'c'able'ldl I jThe.,trucks l i'lcan be provided: withl-"agny suitable form of cablegrip," and the flat cars 15 are connected by bridges 20 so that thetracks 16 are continuous along the desired number of these cars. On theforward car 15 switches 21 are provided so that the trucks can beswitched to the track 11, and an inclined bridge 23 connects the forwardcar with the movable track or conveyer 2 1. A double acting winch 22 isalso provided at the front end of the forward car 15 so that the cablecan be wound forward or back as desired. I have not shown the means forsupporting the cable at the front end of the section to be laid or onthe rear end of the construction train, because this arrangement will bewell understood, and 1 am showing simply enough to illustrate how myimproved method can be carried out.

Assuming that the trucks with the movable track 25 which is laidthereon, has been pushed out to the desired distance. The trucks 1'? arethen propelled forward in a long train covering the entire distance oftrack to be laid. The ties 18 on the trucks are then dumped, and thetrucks are arranged so that there will be the appropriate number of tiesfor each section between the ties 14 already laid. The empty trucks 17are then drawn back to the construction train, and the crew at onceproceed to lay the ties 18, tamp them, and grade them properly for apermanent track. This can be assisted by means of the ordinary levelingboard 18 or by any usual appliance. As soon as the train of trucks 1? iswithdrawn, the cable carries forward the trucks 26 which are arranged onflat cars behind the truck 17, and these trucks carry the permanentrails 27, and the trucks 26 are propelled forward to the same extentthat the trucks 1? have previously covered, and by the time the rails 27are carried forward as stated, the crew will have laid the ties 18permanently, so that the rails can then be unloaded and spiked downpermanently on the previously laid ties.

It will be noticed that in this way the crew are not interfering witheach other, and that the work can be carried forward to the bestpossible advantage. If desired still other cars may be arranged behindthe flat cars 15 carrying the rails 27, and these may be loaded withballast and the ballast can be carried forward in the way alreadyindicated, after the permanent rails have been laid, and the track canbe ballasted.

Thus it will be seen that I can lay a very longsection of permanenttrack and have every man in the crew working to good advantage. Afterthe section of track has been laid as stated, the trucks are hauled backon the flat cars, the construction train pulled back out of the way, anda new train advanced along the just laid permanent track and theoperation repeated.

To facilitate the work the rails 27 can be bolted together on the flatcars, and where the work is carried forward on viaducts, elevatedstructures, or the like, the track 11 can be extended a long distance infront of the construction train, the rails carried out on the conveyingmeans shown, or similar means, for the necessary distance say a quarterof a. mile or more, and the rails then laid on the prepared bed.

I have shown apparatus well intended to carry out the method described,but in this application I do not lay claim to the apparatus, and on theother hand I do not limit myself to the use of any particular form ofapparatus.

I claim 1. The improvement in the art of railroad building, whichconsists in first laying to grade a series of ties which are spacedapart in multiples of the space of the full number of ties to be laid,next laying a temporary track on the aforesaid spaced ties, next runningout a portable track on the said temporary track, next conveying ties onsaid portable track and dumping the required number of ties between thepreviously laid spaced ties, next conveying the track rails along theportable track, and depositing and laying them upon the previously laidties.

2. The improvement in the art of building railroad tracks, whichconsists in first laying to grade a series of ties which are spacedapart at greater distances than the ordinary track ties, laying atemporary track on the said spaced ties, conveying the necessary numberof ties along the temporary track and dumping these in required numberin the spaces between the previously laid ties, next permanently layingthe ties dumped as aforesaid, next'conveying the necessary rails overthe temporary track and depositing them at required distances along thelaid lies, and finally laying the rails.

3. The improvement in the art of building railroads, which consists infirst laying out on the roadbed and spacing apart a series of ties whichare spaced at greater distances than the ordinary track ties, thenlaying a temporary track upon said spaced ties, providing at thebeginning of the track to be laid a construction train having trucksloaded with ties and rails thereon, next propelling the trucks forwardover the temporary track and depositing the necessary number of tiesbetween the previously spaced the necessary number of ties to lay thepermanent track, next permanently placing these ties between thepreviously spaced ties, next Withdrawing the trucks, next propellingtrucks loaded with rails over the portable track, and finally unloadingand laying the permanent rails.

5. The improvement in the art of building railroads which consists inproviding a train of fiat cars with tracks carrying portable trucksloaded with ties and portable trucks loaded with rails, the latter beingarranged behind the tie trucks, laying a temporary track along theroadbed in advance of the fiat cars, then propelling the he trucks fromthe fiat cars over said temporary track, dumping the ties from saidtrucks and layin them permanently on the roadbed, then withdrawing thetie trucks and advancing the rail trucks over said temporary track, andfinally depositing the rails from said rail trucks and laying thepermanent track on the previously laid ties.

6. The improvement in the art of building railroads which consists inproviding upon a train of flat cars parallel tracks on which arearranged in order first a series of trucks loaded with ties, next aseries of trucks loaded with rails, next a series of trucks loaded withballast, then laying a temporary track along the roadbed in advance ofthe train of flat cars, then propeling along said extensible track asuflicient' number of ties for the permanent track, next laying saidties for the permanent track,

' Copies of patent may be obtained for then conveying the permanenttrack rails along said extensible track, and finally laying saidpermanent rails.

8. The improvement in the art of building railroads, which consists inextending a temporary track along the roadbed, then run ning anextensible track along said temporary track, then conveying onsaid.extensible track a sufficient number of ties for the permanenttrack, then laying said ties for the permanent track, then conveyingalong said extensible track a sufficient number of rails for thepermanent track, and finally laying said permanent rails.

9. The improvement in the art of building railroads, which consists infirst vplacing at necessary intervals along the roadbed engineers stakesindicating the line and grade of the track to be laid, next extendingconveying means along the roadbed, next conveying the ties on saidconveying means and depositing them at necessary intervals along theroadbed, next laying the ties to the permanent line and grade indicatedby the engineers stakes, and finally laying the rails permanently onsaid ties.

10. The improvement inthe art of building railroads which consists inplacing at intervals along the roadbed stakes indicating the line andgrade of track to be laid, then laying a temporary track along theroadbed, next'conveyingthe ties along said temporary track, depositlngthem at necessary intervals, and laying the ties to the grade and lineof the permanent track, then conveying along said temporary track thenecessary rails to cover the previously laid ties,

and finallv permanentlylaying the rails on said ties.

11. The improvement in the art of build-' ing railroads on a previouslyprepared roadbed, Which consists in arranging the track materials on aconstruction train, extending a temporary track out over theroadbed forthe distance of a plurality of cars in advance of the constructiontrain, conveying the track material out over this temporary track, andthen depositing and laying the permanent track. c

' GEORGE D. BALDWIN. Witnesses: V

V WARREN B. HUTOHINsQN,

' G. ODoNNELL.

' Washington, D. 03 V p five cents each, by addressing the Commissionerof intents,

